Lawrence Shankland brace leads Hearts to routine win over Motherwell

Lawrence Shankland scored twice as Hearts cruised to a 3-0 Scottish Premiership win at home to Motherwell.

The Scotland striker, who is out of contract in the summer, stuck either side of half-time to set the hosts on their way to a routine victory at Tynecastle.

Alan Forrest rounded off the scoring in the 62nd minute as Hearts moved above their opponents in the table.

Shankland has found goals much harder to come by this season than in his previous two campaigns with the Edinburgh club, which yielded 24 league goals each, but he opened the scoring after half-an-hour.

The 29-year-old ran on to a long ball which the Motherwell defence should have cut out, checked back inside and fired low into the corner.

The visitors thought they were level in the 38th minute when Callum Slattery volleyed home following a set-piece, but the effort was disallowed for offside following a VAR review.

Instead Shankland doubled the hosts’ lead on the hour mark, getting his head on to a James Penrice cross in and guiding the ball down into the corner.

And Forrest killed the contest with Hearts’ third just two minutes later, blasting home the rebound from close range after Yan Dhanda had brought a good save out of goalkeeper Aston Oxborough.